Poker From The Rail Blog

The Week at FTP: Schoenberg Me the Money!

Published on 09:00:42 on Jul 28, 2008
Posted by One Angry Monkey

Well folks, today is a very sad day for all of here at The Rail, as Big Donkey is officially no longer with us. And today is especially sad for me, because now I have to (at least temporarily) take over The Week at FTP. Fear not faithful readers (there have to be at least two or three of you at this point, right?), for I will do my best to fill Big Donkey’s rather large and donktastic shoes. So without further ado, let’s get this weekly wrap-up under way:

Erica Schoenberg – Need I say more?

Yesterday’s $750,000 Guarantee attracted a nice field of 4,057 players and had a prize pool of more than $800K. A hearty round of congrats are in order for all of the players who took part in this enormous donkament (go ahead, pat yourselves on the back), but especially our winner syzygy-1-1-1-1, who can now afford to go on a nice little shopping spree with his newfound $143,285.13.

But the big story of the day had to be David Benyamine’s better half (much, much better), Erica “The Poker Babe” Schoenberg, making a deep run in the $750K Guarantee all the way to the final table. Unfortunately, Erica didn’t quite complete her mission and wound up being the first player eliminated from the final table. Don’t feel too bad for Ms. Schoenberg though, she took home more than $10K for her efforts – not a horrible return for a $200 investment. Brains, beauty, and poker skills to boot – she really is the complete package boys.

$20K flips, anyone?

Meanwhile, there was some seriously sick action going down at the PLO ring-game tables yesterday. Team Full Tilt’s Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen and John Juanda were joined at a $200/$400 PLO table by high-stakes regulars SteveSung, Pr1nnyraid and LoLiNa for some $20K flips. This was degeneracy at its finest folks – please do not try this at home.

JJ was the big winner for the session, taking home around $280K – a nice payday for one of the nicest guys in poker. LoLiNa also had a very nice session, ending the day up about $90K. I look forward to the day I can afford to take $20K flips, seems like it would be fun. Then again, I look forward to the day when I actually make at least $20K a year (target date: 2052).

The Madness strikes back as we wait for the return of the FTOPS…

Just a heads up for all the Tilters out there in Pokerland – as promised, we’re running another round of Sit & Go Madness this weekend. The fun kicks off on Friday, August 1^st at 14:00 ET and goes all the way through to Sunday, August 3^rd at 14:00. There’s more than $75K in cash and prizes up for grabs, so if you’re a SNG player or just like winning cash and prizes, this one’s for you.

We’re also rapidly approaching zero hour for FTOPS IX (or 9, for those of you not fluent in Roman numerals). The action gets going on Wednesday, August 6^th with Event #1, a $1 million guarantee NLHE donkament, and runs through Sunday, August 17^th when the $2.5 million guaranteed Main Event takes place. There’s more than $15 million guaranteed over the 25 events of this mammoth series, so please don’t miss out on a second of the best donkament action around.

That’s all for now folks. If you’re hankering for more of The Rail we’ll have some new Bond18 action up for you in a bit, and AlCantHang will return soon with another round of Bloggers On The Rail – make sure to check them both out. Have a good one…

Category: The Week at FTP | Author: One Angry Monkey | Keywords: Erica Schoenberg FTOPS

Heads Up: Mike Matusow Versus Erica Schoenberg

Published on 12:30:19 on Feb 28, 2008
Posted by One Angry Monkey

Welcome back to another round of the Full Tilt Poker Heads-Up Challenge, where we take 64 of our top pros and face them off against each other in a thrilling battle royale. Many will enter, only one will survive. "March Madness" ain’t got nothing on us, baby!

This week we have a very intriguing match up. Number two seed Mike “God Hates Me” Matusow takes on 15^th seeded Erica “What the hell am I doing with David Benyamine” Schoenberg. Good versus evil, beauty versus the beast, divine inspiration versus the human cooler. It should be one hell of a fight. Let’s get it on:

Category	Mike Matusow	Erica Schoenberg	Survey Says
Career Earnings	Nearly $6 million	Almost $600K	Yes, Mikey’s made a lot of money during his career. But how much of that has he blown on illicit substances and showering strippers with sticky dollar bills? Erica, on the other hand, is just getting started in her career so it’s hard to fault her for such a serious deficit. But we still have to give the one to Mikey (having lost a few sticky dollars in our time as well).
Major Titles	Two WSOP bracelets	None	Once again, give Erica some time and we’re sure that she’ll catch up. Unfortunately, we have to give this one to Mikey as well.
Tournament Play	When he’s hot, he’s unstoppable. But he’s almost never hot.	She shows a lot of promise, but has yet to come through with a major victory.	We admire Mikey’s tournament skills, if only for the fact that he’s suffered a barrage of unbearably bad beats that would have killed a lesser man. Erica has simply yet to prove herself on the tourney circuit. Mikey continues to lay the beat down (we said down, not off, right?) on Erica.
Cash Game Play	Mikey spews fundage unlike any other pro when he sits down at the cash games on Full Tilt.	Erica is under the tutelage of cash game specialist David Benyamine (tutelage being slang for… oh, never mind).	This is always the hardest category to judge because we really don’t get to see these players at cash games too often. We have seen Mikey get slaughtered a couple of times though. So based on that, we have to give this one to Erica. The score now stands at 3 to 1 for Matusow.
Best Game	PLO	NL Hold ‘em	PLO? Isn’t that some kind of terrorist organization? What have you been sniffing Mikey? Ring one more up for Erica.
Table Talk	Loud and obnoxious	Quiet and respectful	Mikey, Mikey, Mikey, where did it all go so wrong? Stop trying to live up to your nickname and tone it down once and a while. We know you love to complain about all the bad beats that you take. But really, no one cares. Sorry, but it’s the truth. Our ears hurt just from thinking about this one. Erica evens the score heading down the stretch.
Nickname	The Mouth	The Poker Babe	Hmmm. This is a tough one. Both nicknames are quite apt. While we’d like to give some love to Mikey here, it’s just not going to happen. The Poker Babe is just too pokerific, too babetastic, too groin-grabbingly transcendent. Ahhh, Erica Schoenberg… What were we saying? Oh yeah, Erica takes down another category. Call her butter, cause she’s on a roll.
Special Skills	World-class complainer	Blackjack specialist	Another close call. The question is whether or not Mikey is better at complaining than Erica is at Blackjack. The answer is probably yes. Mikey takes down this one down and evens up the score as we head into the final category.
Outside Poker	Went on a blind date with Kathy Griffin.	Former model, beach volleyball player, and personal trainer.	Kathy Griffin? Really Mikey? We know you’re a media whore, but my god man! Spare yourself some dignity. Nothing more needs to be said here, Erica takes down the final category (and not just because of her splendid physique).

She’s done it! Erica Schoenberg has pulled off the first upset of the Full Tilt Poker Heads-Up Challenge by a score of five to four. This is history in the making folks, remember this moment. I think I feel a tear forming in the corner of my eye, I’m just that damned excited. This day will live on in my heart and mind for a long time to come. Long live the Poker Babe!

Category: Heads Up | Author: One Angry Monkey | Keywords: Erica Schoenberg Mike Matusow

The Week at FTP: Another FTOP-ical Post

Published on 07:25:24 on Feb 19, 2008
Posted by Big Donkey

The madness that is FTOPS has ended and honestly, we couldn’t be happier. It’s not that we don’t love the series – we do – really, we do – but after spending the last 10 days trying to keep track of all the tourney action, we need a break.

Of course, we can’t afford the kind of vacation that Reverse can now treat himself to, but then again, we didn’t just take down more than $456K for winning the Main Event. Nearly 5,300 players ponied up the $500 entry fee for this Mother-of-All-FTOPS events and, in the end, the fight for the gold jersey came down to Reverse and FTP’s own Thomas the Walrus Wahlroos.

The Walrus

On the final hand, Wahlroos pushed all-in with K-9 of diamonds only to be dogged by Reverse who made the call holding the A-5 of clubs. When a 5 fell on the flop, Reverse’s small pair was enough to secure his victory. Wahlroos earned more than $276K for second place, which is the second highest cash prize a pro has won in any FTOPS event. (Erick Lindgren claimed bragging rights last week when he took home nearly $292K and the gold jersey for winning Event #9.)

Fact and Figures

If we were the guys over at Wicked Chops, we’d spice this section up with photos of some really hot looking women. Unfortunately, we’re not those guys and our bosses remind of that fact every time we try to slip some skin into this blog.

So, for a less-than-satisfying online quickie, here are some of the big numbers from FTOPS VII:

Events – 20
Guaranteed prize money - $10 million
Overall players (all events) – 43,247
Actual prize money (all events) – 15,353,500
Combined prize money of all event winners - $3,214,082.12

All we can say at this point is “Yowza!” (We’ve got limited vocabularies, if you haven’t noticed.)

Party Time with the Mad Monk

Andy Black’s tournament drought is over. The “Mad Monk” of poker won his first major title earlier this week by becoming the ~~Party Poker~~ Premier League Champion after defeating fellow FTP pro Roland de Wolfe in heads-up play.

Black, who’s built a reputation as one of the game’s premier player and (unfortunately) choke artists, managed to avoid the costly mistakes that have derailed him in the late stages of other large tourneys like the WSOP and the Aussie Millions. Aside from the all-important title, Black victory added $250K to his bankroll.

It’s a good thing Monks no longer have to take a vow of poverty, huh Andy?

We Love LA

But not as much as our pros do – especially the ones who are in town for the World Poker Tour’s LA Poker Classic. We’re still a week away from the $10K Main Event, but the side games and preliminary tournaments are drawing a big crowd to the Commerce. Some of the highlights over the past week include:

Toto Leonidas taking fourth in Event 18, a $,2500 NLH tournament
Erica Schoenberg finishing 12^th in Event 19, a $1,000 NLH tournament
David Pham taking eighth in Event 22 – another $2,500 NLH tournament

And, for those of you who follow these things, it’s worth noting that David, who was the 2007 CardPlayer Player of the Year, is currently fifth on this year’s leaderboard. He’s followed closely by fellow FTP pros Erik Seidel in 10^th and Lee Watkinson in 14^th.

Category: The Week at FTP | Author: Big Donkey | Keywords: FTOPS Erica Schoenberg

The Pros Speak: Erica Schoenberg

Published on 13:26:16 on Feb 12, 2008
Posted by The Captain

If you’ve never played poker or seen anything about it on TV, you might not know who Erica Schoenberg is. But if you’re reading this, most likely you have. Affectionately dubbed “Poker Babe,” she’s no stranger to performing for crowds. While she was a professional model for some time, Erica’s skills at the table have propelled her to where she is today.

Always pleasant, she was quick to respond and tell us a bit about herself. Here’s what she had to say: